Farmhouse Academy opens Crest Hill location with cooking, baking classes for all ages

Farmhouse Academy in Mokena, a hands-on culinary studio for people of all ages, recently opened a Crest Hill location.

Owner Kara Fanelli, who opened the Mokena location in March 2018, said the Crest Hill location is ready to provide “some awesome food classes.”

“We do cooking and baking education classes for all ages,” Fanelli said. “And that includes events like birthday parties and traditional classes people can sign up for. We do events for Girl Scouts, corporate team-building, field trips. It’s for any group that wants to learn to cook or bake. And we do all skill levels.”

Fanelli said she learned baking from her grandmother and previously owned her own pastry business. But as Fanelli had more children – she now has four – she decided she didn’t have the stamina for all-night baking projects to keep up with production, she said.

“We’re giving practical advice for people that they can take home with them. I had so much of that information I had gathered, and I really wanted to share that.”

—  Kara Fanelli, owner of Farmhouse Academy

However, Fanelli discovered that she loved teaching and wanted to help home cooks improve their skills.

So she expanded her business knowledge, found the right people with the right culinary skills, adapted recipes for home cooking and adjusted her cooking knowledge “to the needs of the community," she said.

“We’re not a fancy degree culinary school,” Fanelli said. “We’re not teaching people how to make French mother sauces the way they do in culinary school. We’re giving practical advice for people that they can take home with them. I had so much of that information I had gathered, and I really wanted to share that.”

Classes are hands-on social events

Jack Schusterman of Mokena said he and his wife Patricia have taken cooking classes at the Farmhouse Academy for the past five years – and typically attend three to six classes a year.

“We are not chefs by any stretch of the imagination,” Schusterman said. “We’re not fancy people, and we don’t go to fancy restaurants. But we like good food, and we like to cook.”

Schusterman said he and his wife love Farmhouse Academy’s classes because they’re not “hardcore culinary workshops.” The classes are hands-on social events where the couple cooks and eats in community and makes new friends.

“You are going to chop, and you are going to dice and do all those things,” Schusterman said. “But you aren’t going to be judged on it.”

Schusterman said he gravitates toward Chef Julianna DiGuido because she makes instruction “fun, engaging and interactive.” That said, his results don’t always look like hers.

“But it’s going to taste great,” Schusterman said.

Now, some people do want to learn the technical aspects of cooking, but they’re not typical clients, Fanelli said.

“Most people just want to learn why kosher salt is better than table salt, and why you shouldn’t cook with extra virgin olive oil, as many people do,” Fanelli said. “I tell people all the time, ‘The recipes you find online from these food bloggers – most of them are not seasoned well enough.’ ”

“We’re not teaching people how to make French mother sauces the way they do in culinary school. We’re giving practical advice for people that they can take home with them.”

—  Kara Fanelli, owner of Farmhouse Academy

People learn the “tips and tricks” of taking a basic recipe and making it “restaurant quality at home,” she said.

“Everyone in the classes leaves with more confidence,” Fanelli said, “especially the kids.”

Fanelli said children “have such a passion for learning how to cook and bake.” Kids loving learning how baking soda, baking powder and yeast work – along with the chemical reactions taking place inside a cupcake, she said.

Kids also are more likely to try new foods if they’ve prepared it, Fanelli said. Often, parents will sign up for a class with their children even though they’re certain the kids won’t eat mango salsa with red and green onion, she said.

Parents often are stunned when their children eat mango salsa or other unfamiliar foods, Fanelli said. But “you’d be surprised” at what kids will eat if you give them the control and a hand in making it, she said.

“Because they get to touch it and feel it and smell it,” Fanelli said.

Why Crest Hill for a second location?

Fanelli had looked at space in Shorewood a few years ago, but the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted those plans, she said. When Will County reopened for business, that space was no longer available, she said.

Because the Mokena facility is located in a “lighter industrial area,” Fanelli wanted something similar with a big event space, which she found in Crest Hill.

“We’re very excited about our second location in Crest Hill,” she said. “The Crest Hill location is larger than our Mokena location.”

Both locations will host seasonal and holiday classes and summer camps on a rotating basis to give people options, she said.

For more information, visit farmhouseacademy.com or call 708-921-3528.